Rcal10

Maybe the MLB pen of the Cubs?

All the regulars. Good to see. Go. Cubs!

And health. But otherwise, 100% spot on. If their offense is performing at even their average production the Cubs will be tough to beat if Boyd and Horton are healthy. Nothing wrong with a top 3 of Imanaga, Boyd and Horton. Pen looks pretty solid too, if Palencia is at his best.

I think the Padres because they don’t have left handed starting pitchers and they don’t hit lefties well. Least favorite opponent would be the Dodgers. Mets might go with Peterson and Manaea against us.

I am pretty sure each of those guys pitched more innings in that streak. Horton does 5 or 6. Still fantastic. Not taking anything away from him, but Jake’s run was unreal.

There are 33 games to go and we are in a playoff chase. Now isn’t the time to play a guy so he eventually gets better at something. Now is the time to play the best player for that day. I am not sure Shaw isn’t the best player. But I am not the coaching staff or the manager. So if they feel Castro is the better player for this particular match up I am ok with playing him instead of Shaw with the hope Shaw improves.

Just being an above average/good fielding 3rd baseman is good enough for this infield. They have good gloves all over the field. Not going to beat Hayes. Oh well. That is fine. Just be good at 3rd and hit above league average and that is a solid third baseman. And I think he can be better than just above league average with the bat. I think he could be a guy who hits .260 with 20+ homers and 20+ stolen bases and maybe even puts up OPS+ of 120.

Both Crochett and Bellinger cost $10M more than Tucker. So if they kept Bellinger it would have costed them $10M more for Bellinger and then another $26M for Crochett. So $36M more to have Bellinger and Crochett on the team. That wasn’t going to happen. That is why I said if they didn’t have Bellinger maybe they could have had Crochett. But was he ever really an option? And as you said it would be more than Paredes and Smith to get him.

At what cost do we go to in order to get Cabrera? Is he worth Cassie and Wiggins, as an example. Easy to criticize the FO for not making moves. But I think they get just as much criticism if they dealt what took to get these guys.

I don’t understand. Bellinger and Paredes make more than Tucker and Shaw. If they kept Bellinger they probably wouldn’t have done much. IMO Bellinger was not a part of this team regardless of what they did elsewhere. They would have went with a cheaper FA outfielder.

If you are saying without Bellinger, than maybe. But who are they giving up for Crochett? That has to factor in too. Might be Paredes and Smith. So back to square one. Now no Bellinger and no Tucker. Also no Paredes and Smith. And he would have cost even more in assets. So maybe no Cassie too.

Correction. They pocketed the savings on Bellinger. Had they spent the savings maybe they end up with Pivetta. But they decided to pocket money. I think what people are missing here is Bellinger was going to be traded regardless of them getting Tucker or not. This isn’t a question of Tucker or Bellinger. It is Tucker or sign Grichek or Joc Peterson. Ricketts wanted to hold money back this year. Bellinger would have never been part of that plan. Also, Paredes was pretty bad as a Cub. I doubt he would be any better than what Shaw has been this year. Wrigley is not a good place for Paredes.

This I can agree with. But IMO if a pitcher is picked it should be Horton. He has the most innings and has been the most consistent and best overall rookie pitcher.

Lefty. So could be a problem. Does Castro start in center tonight?

Why not Horton? He has had a better year than either pitcher you mentioned. I don’t think Burns gets any consideration. Misiorowski started great, but his year isn’t better than Horton either.

I’m not sure anyone has said Shaw is better than Smith. It has been said he is having a better year, currently. The people speaking up for Shaw are just saying maybe the Cubs arent idiots for trading Smith instead of him. Maybe Cam Smith isn’t the second coming of Lou Brock. Maybe he is just a guy who might become a decent player. Many had him pegged for superstardom and Shaw a bust. Obviously that can still happen. But I think now people are trying to make those who thought Smith was a star and Shaw a bust, that either can end up either way. I agree with you that it will be interesting to see what becomes of Smith. But the same can be said about Shaw. And I think that is the point for those supporting Shaw.

There is no difference, if you decide to go year to year or commit to 3 years, in the money you lay out yearly. It isn’t like they are asking me for $30,000 for tickets the next 3 years. So if I commit to 3 years I pay $10,000 this year and know they can’t increase it more than 3% next year or the year after that. Then in ‘27 I pay another $10,000. If games are not played I get a refund. This will happen whether I committed to 3 years or go yearly I guess the only difference is I can’t get disgusted with ownership and opt out in ‘28, I am already committed. The positive to commit to 3 years is you get a guarantee of the most they will raise your tickets and a guarantee to tickets for the ASG. So the choice comes down to your tolerance level of owners and baseball. If you think a lock out will sour you on the game and going in the future you should take it year after year. But if it is more important to lock in pricing and AS tickets and you know you are still going to go to the games you lock in for 3 years. This 3 year commitment isn’t mandatory. So I have no idea why people are making a big deal out of it. Don’t do it if you think you might not want tickets in the near future. If you are a lifelong fan with season tickets forever and don’t see it changing, take advantage of basically price freezing your seats and knowing you get tickets to the AS game. Third option is give up seats now. No one is making the STH do anything they don’t choose to do.

I don’t think it is a dumb fanbase. I think it is a fanbase. Since all are dumb I do not feel that has to be mentioned. It is what it is. All fanbase are filled with ideas that they know better than the manager and FO. I don’t find the Cubs fanbase being any dumber than any other. This is just what fans do.

I know you asked someone else, but if you look at Suzuki’s career numbers you will see he is pretty steady. He does go into prolonged slumps but eventually comes out of it. Suzuki’s career line is 475 slug, 820 OPS and 129 OPS+. He is pretty close to those figures this year. I would expect him to end right around that area. This is not directed at you. For the most part I don’t find you way more reasonable then many. But I just don’t understand the fanbase who watches the Cubs yearly and yet every time players go into a funk act like the guy sucks. Baseball happens every year. Every year guys look great for a time, average for a time and completely sucky for a time. IMO the Cubs have done an amazing job starting above water during the suck fest. But the only way they can win the WS is if some guys start performing back to the level of their career norms and they stay healthy. If they do that, IMO, they have a good chance of winning in the playoffs. If the guys going bad, continue to struggle the rest of the year or they bench Tucker and Suzuki and play Cassie and Ballesteros they have no chance at winning. Those guys who have been here all year, brought them to the dance. Now they have to dance with them.

Then don’t do it. They say you can choose to go year to year if you want. If you do 3 years you don’t pay 3 years. They just guarantee an increase won’t be more than 3 % yearly and all star tickets if you commit to 3 years.

On the low end they should play 95-96 win pace the last 34 games? Really? What have they done the last 70 games to make you think a worst case scenerio is 20 wins in 34 games? I agree that they can win that many to close out the season. But I would never suggest that is a minimum they should win.

Ok, got it. I don’t necessarily disagree that he should sit against most lefties. I just didn’t understand the timing of your comment. Now I see you are going back to when he did actually play a bit against them and suggesting that is why he started slumping. Ok, not sure on that. But at least I know why you said what you said. He did have a great AB in the 8th. I was glad to see him face the lefty.

Correction, Definitely not.

Didn’t Busch single to right in the 8th against a lefty. Had a real nice AB then hit one sharply to right. Just seems a strange time to now be firmly on the side of Busch is definitely a platoon bat. What happened yesterday to have you now make that decision?

I wouldn’t mind Nico leading off, but he doesn’t really walk enough. His OBP is the same as Busch. But since the break he has done well, so I would be ok with him leading off.